Sneak into Buzludzha

“As we carefully crawled up through the hole and into the darkness the first thing that could be seen was flights of stairs…with entire pieces missing; the noise of the wind now louder than ever as it made its way through the hidden inner chambers of the monument. Step by step we paced up the stairs until we finally came to the opening of the grand hall. And there it was; an enormous hall, mosaics all around us and the center piece to it all, a large hammer and sickle on the roof above us. It was an indescribable feeling to stand in the midst of this absolutely massive yet dilapidated piece of the Soviet era. There was an eerie silence about the place in the absence of any other people around, broken only by the winds attempting to tear the metal roof apart, light shining through the gaping holes where it had already been successful in doing so.”

“After a cursory search of the exterior we dipped around one side and located the makeshift entrance - a jagged dark opening into one of the side stairwells. Dodging the rebar hanging at eye-level, we wriggled in like eels. Once inside other perils were exposed - debris piles, asbestos mounds, holes in the floor, and falling tiles, all masked by patchy darkness. Our headlamps cleared paths among the shadows. A violent storm the previous night meant level after level of leaks. Loud hollow drips echoed throughout, like a plumber’s nightmare. Knowing the main attraction was up, along with the sunlight, we skittered over a mountain of fallout covering a set of stairs. The auditorium was outstanding - a circular room with rows and rows of concrete bleachers. Sunlight peeked in from the rotted ceiling above, casting slits of light on intricate mosaics still in tact in many places.”

“My headlamp was getting weaker by the minute, so I used my camera’s flash for additional illumination, and my imagination began to take over. Flash! Torture chamber. Back to black. Flash! Haunted mental ward. Back to black. Flash! There was a long dark corridor, interrupted every few meters with even darker rooms, doors long gone. The floor was littered with rubble and icy puddles. Flash! Cellar full of corpses. Back to black. Maybe that’s enough exploration for one day… Heading back towards the surface, graffiti of "Silence again” and a deep red “Devil” sent chills up my spine.”